Siren's Spell
by Fanatic4Fanfiction
Summary: He was man enough to confess that he was not Odysseus, captive against his will. No, Ragetti was a willing prisoner, a devoted servant in his love for Calypso. Part two of the Tiagetti saga.


Hermes had not answered her call and she would require his help to make the grotto suitable. As Calypso swept her hand along its walls, her days of youth ran rampant in her mind. She could not help but wonder if her fellow nymphs would laugh or scorn her for sinking this low, romancing a pirate.

Her crueler tendencies were indeed returning with this latest endeavor, but Fabrizio's dedication had to be put to the test. _Any_ man could waltz up and woo her with the promise of carnal pleasure. But very few could, and would, swim to an isolated grotto to fulfill that promise.

The goddess had set things in motion, but Fabrizio would see to follow through. Just as she was ready to curse the entire realm of Paradise and all who lived there, her brother materialized in the vast entrance of the hideaway.

"I assume you desperately needed my help, the urgency with which you demanded me come. The last time you beckoned me was a century and a half ago, when that evil—THING imprisoned you."

"Hermes, my brother…" She found that emotions were too abundant to contain, and without another word rushed over to enfold her kin tightly.

"What might be your dilemma?" he asked, arms gracefully reciprocating the love his sister had shown him. It was difficult to believe Calypso and Hermes were half-siblings if one were to observe them from afar; they were completely dissimilar except for their Oceanid amber eyes.

Hermes' began to narrow. "You smell like a mortal!"

"I _am_ mortal," Calypso replied quietly. Her brother froze at his tactlessness and mumbled his apologies.

"I am sorry. I meant a male mortal. Who loves rum. Certainly not…"

Calypso huffed, walking away from him stiffly. "_Not_ him."

Jack Sparrow had followed Davy Jones, in a series of passionate and vengeful trysts. Theirs had lasted the longest of them all. Though once continual lovers, decades without contact came to pass before he and his crew arrived on her doorstep. When Fabrizio caught Calypso's observing eye for the first time. Calypso wondered if mortal blood drove her to feel such attraction for these men. Then again, it did not take such to want them.

Hermes studied Calypso's frayed skirts as she paced to and fro before him: a habit acquired in her banishment. From humans. By most counts his sister _was_. Eons could go by, and yet Hermes would live in the days where they caused mischief together in Paradise.

"Where is this man?" Hermes asked.

"He is en route."

At this her brother's eyebrows disappeared into his immaculate curls. Calypso would have never permitted a man to capture her affections, let alone come near her. It had been likely that any one that dared wound up in Hades.

"Hermes, I beg ya, do me this favor?" the goddess asked with a pleading pout. "He is worth it. I swear ta you."

It was spoken in Paradise that Calypso's gaze arrested hearts in either world. Mirror images of Hermes'. He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Oh, all RIGHT."

Hermes furnished the barren grotto with low-laying _klines_ and circular tables of Olympian food, then turned to his sister.

"If he is as laudable as you say, then I suppose I'll go find him."

Calypso held him tightly before he soared away, looking out into the sunlight with anticipation.

* * *

Fabrizio Ragetti trudged through the empty jungle. He glanced down at the ground to watch for rocks, and it was upon the tenth glance that something occurred to him. The first being that he hardly knew what a gratto was, and if it were the same thing as a cove. The second frightened him more still.

He would never have made _love_ to a woman up until this point in time. The opportunity presented itself many a time, but was never taken. Ragetti had fucked_,_ for lack of a better word. But for those women, he never truly yearned with any organ other than the one in his currently absent pants. He hungered for Calypso with his body and soul. She was his first love after all, in her natural and assumed state.

So entangled in his imaginings, the pirate ventured off course without notice. It took Ragetti several moments to see this fault. Panic began to well up when he circled back around.

"You already passed her," said a very tall and comely stranger. Ragetti yelled in alarm while doubling over at the waist to grab a fern and cover himself. The male leaned casually against a neighboring palm tree.

"Calypso called upon a favor, and told me to guide you should you lose the way."

A dagger was gleaming from the mysterious man's hip, and castration was not something Ragetti felt like enduring; death posed yet a more ominous threat.

Ragetti petitioned, "I mean no disrepute, mate, but…who might you be?"

"You are no Adonis, so that foliage covering your private appendages is not necessary. I am Hermes," he said mirthfully.

That happiness faded at the blank expression on the young pirate's face, for he seemed to have no earthly idea whom Hermes was.

"Or Mercury as the Rom—…your people called me."

Ragetti's confusion melted into disbelief. Things were becoming progressively stranger in Calypso's presence.

"With the flyin' sandals?" Sure enough, when he glanced down at the deity's feet, they were clad in _talaria_: sparkling sandals with wings attached.

"Yes, the very same. Calypso is my half-sister; she sent _me_ to fetch you."

This bordered on insanity. All the legends of the world were true, from ancient mythology to demons and witches. Ragetti blinked slowly.

"How am I sure that you're Calypso's…?"

Swirling amber-topaz eyes peered inquisitively into Ragetti's: identical in every way to hers, from their elliptic shape to their shrewdness.

"Do you believe me now?" the god asked. Ragetti squared his shoulders and nodded.

Hermes smiled. "Shall we?"

"Lead the way, Hermes."

They ascended a cliff overlooking another well-hidden beach. The grotto was to the northwest, barraged by waves. Rocks were scattered around the southern and the eastern half.

"That's where you need to go. So when you hike down to the shore, head around the cliff and take the current. But not for too long."

What the waters held once he reached them, only heaven knew. But Ragetti did not plan to waste any time walking out to shore and doing it the safe way now.

He continued to back up, satisfied now that he had enough distance to propel off the sloping peak. The waters churned bluish-green far down below.

"Pirate, you can't mean to leap from this height. You're a lunatic!"

Hermes thrust out a long, muscled arm to dishearten him; Ragetti side-stepped it and set to running.

"I've done this before for reasons far more unimportant, Sir Hermes," he said, treading ground faster and faster. "If she's testin' me I'll rise to take it."

"Were you even listening to a fraction of what I was saying?! Mortal, what good will you be once **dead**?" Hermes yelled above the sound of crashing tides, cry falling on deaf ears as the pirate jumped and headed for the ocean below.

The god looked down at the disappearing silhouette of Ragetti as he fell, then up to the heavens as he summoned himself away.

Adrenaline coursed through Ragetti's veins as the result of his leap. When entering the chilly depths, Ragetti thought he was in the clear. But waves high above his head came viciously upon him. To avoid this the pirate submerged, let them carry him, then surfaced once more. If he faltered just a moment, drowning was terrifyingly possible. This paled in comparison to memories of jagged Sardinian coasts, where currents tore and clawed through the surrounding sea.

Coming up after the last towering swell, Ragetti swam toward the cave not far on the horizon. He knew it then, legends of sirens were not far-fetched in the least.

* * *

Calypso looked around the torch-lit grotto. The tidal pool was kept warm by Prometheus' fire and surrounded by oils. He had not forgotten how they had been lovers.

Her love of luxurious aesthetics was a distinctly Olympian trait, not like her nymphaiad sisters at all in their simplicity. Amidst baklava, rum and ambrosia were her most recent fondness, soursop, and she reached over to pick out one. The taste was divine, and Calypso closed her eyes to savor it slowly. How she missed this life sometimes.

Ragetti staggered into the cave weakly. When he called out her name, Calypso was startled to attention.

He winced at the pain in his left foot, and heaved an exhausted sigh. He was sporting bruises from ocean and rocks alike.

She took a towel in her arms, rushing toward him. "Are ya all right?!"

Rageti nodded slowly. "…q-quicker way…"

"FABRIZIO—" Her worry was laid bare in her beautiful, flaring eyes.

"Love, don't fret."

"Don't fret?!"

The man moved to wrap his arms around Calypso's waist as he knelt. "I'm all right."

Fabrizio raised his head, gaze setting appreciatively on her.

"I'd l-l-leap off a dozen cliffs if it got me anywhere near to you."

The goddess' body relaxed in his hold, fingers sifting through his dripping golden locks.

"But I-I'm s-s-sorry," Fabrizio mumbled quietly into her stomach, "I admit it was a foolish th-thing to do."

Calypso pulled him gently onto his foot to help him hobble on the nearest bench.

"Even some **gods** are not that gallant."

Ragetti shivered; she sat alongside him and brought the towel with her.

"Gods can d-die?"

"Any being can if ya know their weakness."

Ragetti fell silent, perhaps out of surprise at such ominous words. Calypso dried him off with gentleness and changed the subject.

"Humans catch cold so easily."

He blushed and bit his lip when Calypso's endeavors reached between his legs. A soft groan disrupted the serene air.

The cloth left Ragetti's moistened skin to be folded neatly on the bench, but her warmth was not absent for long.

She laid two petite hands on his knee and ankle. "I cannot take away pain, but I can heal whateva ail you."

Ragetti rose with an involuntary cringe, the gash on his foot more agonizing than he could hide. Calypso gawked at it.

Her amber gaze softened, and his heart more so with it.

"Such a fool," she muttered fondly.

Calypso's healing energy channeled into him with a lulling intensity. The sensation was akin to nails lightly grazing skin. His black-and-blue flesh retained its normal color, wounds slowly sealing shut.

It drained Calypso to use spells nowadays; her power was failing her, and it was horrifying to think that she could lose it entirely for good.

The goddess was unnerved less as his arms came to find her. Calypso now felt faint for another reason entirely.

"You're incredible, Calypso," Ragetti whispered reverently, laying a kiss upon her cheek in thanks. "Was this all for us?"

She nuzzled into Fabrizio deeply, and when he continued to tremble, Calypso placed her lips to his.

"Yes. I love how ya taste..."

Each fondle, sigh, and bat of her long eyelashes was leading the pirate to madness. Did she even KNOW? Warmth was now the very least of his problems; Calypso was like a blazing _fire_, searing all of his body, continually stoked within him by her ministrations. She shimmied into his lap gracefully, his hands sliding down to nestle in her falling chiton.

Her thighs squeezed Ragetti snugly.

"Cozy?"

"Fabrizio, you are so smug. But yes…"

At this Ragetti relaxed and let his eye lavish her form. It was nothing like the British women's. She had CURVES, _real_ ones that needed no help from illusory dresses and corsets, girdles and other shaping garments. Calypso was Calypso; Calypso was a goddess and therefore desirable above any mortal—and knew she was to him.

"This chiton needs removin'," she said, blue-stained lips curled into a smile and eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Would you like me t—?"

"**I** will rid myself of it," she purred against his neck, tongue flicking out against his pressure point and making him twitch. "You watch."

That was no struggle for Ragetti. The further up the dark, flouncy gown, the larger his hazel eye widened. Her thick thighs. Then her navel. Up to the underside of her breasts, at which he did not disguise his shuddering gasp.

"You have seen dem before, my dear."

"This is different, this is…you doing this, for me." He let out a strained exhale and sat up straight, hands shaking with anticipation. And briefly after that it was off and flung far away.

Immediately his fingers and mouth were upon her. Ragetti marveled at the succulence of the goddess' skin: smooth as velvet to feel and rich as sweets to taste. Her nipples were no exception to his questing. Like her kisses Ragetti found himself hard-pressed to settle for one sampling.

He earned a soft, needing moan while laving the dark peaks with teeth and tongue, and coaxed growls as his nails dragged across her rounded flesh.

Calypso's voice pleasantly adorned his ear as she leaned forward to Ragetti's touch.

"You, mmmm, lick and grab like me a five-course meal, my sweet."

Fabrizio squeezed her hips with need.

"Am I so appetizin'?" she teased with her hands roving about his head.

Ragetti shifted his hips underneath the goddess for several blush-worthy reasons. "You have _no_ idea."

Calypso gave a sultry shimmy. "Might ya enlighten me?"

Fabrizio made a show of extending his tongue and licking, which only served to make her naughtier. Calypso delved between her tingling thighs and swept it along the lips betwixt. He was rewarded with the exquisitely erotic sight of her glistening arousal. The goddess fluttered her fingers as if prompting him to taste, but such offers needed no invitation. A few suckles was all it took for him to crave.

Ragetti looked in awe at the moisture coating Calypso's thighs. She smiled at his quiet determination and waited for his next move. He looked about the grotto with an inquiring eye. She did not have to follow Fabrizio's gaze to know where it lay, and he regarded her in newfound intensity. "I'm takin' you there," Fabrizio said decisively.

Calypso was sure she had not imagined his smirk when she stuttered her agreement. But as it was, Fabrizio's expression was hidden when he made to stand.

His throbbing ankle made him stagger for the first few steps, but soon his confident stride returned. Also did that burning need, which arose when Calypso's skin pressed flush to Ragetti's, and all of her was achingly close to him. He walked quickly.

Her moistened fingertips dragged tantalizingly along his shoulder blades, and had he not been so resolute he could have dropped her. Hoping that she knew the stern look Ragetti was giving her, he took a bold leap of faith and bit what neck he could find in reprimand. Her startled whimper echoed throughout the grotto. As they neared the pool, she felt his manhood pulsing in need. Ragetti's skin was moist to the touch as well, but because of restraint or the exertion of their journey, she could not tell for sure.

A quick dip told Calypso that they had reached their destination, and soon she was astride her human lover again. He sat upon the natural ridge within the pool. Fabrizio's tongue scaled the area that he had bitten, and Calypso tilted her neck to expose herself further. Ragetti could not control the hunger that possessed him if he tried. It was some hazy time after this, that the goddess pulled slowly from his hold and licked her lips.

"Now that ya've brought me here, what is it you plan on doing?"

Too far into this state of pleasure to be daunted or embarrassed, Ragetti answered just as directly. "Giving you some of that idea from earlier."

Her amber eyes caught the light of the fire, twice as beautiful and wide at his blunt reply. "Ya—"

"Want to pleasure you, the way you want, but not like this. I'll need to get deeper into the water."

Fabrizio switched positions and set her upon his previous seat. She stared at him curiously as she wondered how long he was going to submerge, but he came back soon.

"Deep enough," was all he managed to get out right away, using his hands to push the dirty blond hair back from his face and blinking eye. The water ran down his chest and shoulders in a very alluring way. His gasps also had a very familiar effect on her as well. Had she missed this on the beach? She regretted leaving so swiftly now. Calypso cleared her throat and swam to meet him in the middle. Fabrizio grinned, and pushed her back against the surprisingly cool obsidian.

"What—"

Then he tightly gripped her derriere with both calloused hands.

"Fabrizio, what are ya—"

And then Fabrizio lifted her further up until she was no longer in his arms, and placed her legs firmly over his shoulders.

"Fabriiiiizio," she whined with longing. That was all that Ragetti needed to hear. He sampled her glistening walls with no haste. The added warmth and pressure of the bubbling water prompted her to scream. He could hear it perfectly underneath the surface.

This position and situation was not at all new to her; there were few sexual adventures she had yet to undertake as an immortal. But for such a novice as he proclaimed himself to be... The contrast from his shy demeanor to such steadfastness made it so much more so. Calypso tugged at his silken locks and guided him toward more responsive areas.

Fabrizio's eye darkened in realization, and without breaking their line of sight he enclosed his lips over her clitoris so sweetly she found herself temporarily boneless atop his shoulders. Ragetti's confidence flourished at this receptiveness. He flicked his tongue at her pearl to draw further pleasure from her, and she reacted wonderfully. Soft thighs contracted around his head in sharp, powerful spasms that accompanied the rocking of her ever-moving hips.

Calypso felt Fabrizio's shoulders shake with laughter as a result of this, and he obeyed her dutifully. Ragetti gripped at her wet, supple skin as if she were the anchor tethering him to the earth. He could not understand the power of how desperately, honestly he wanted her. She was all of the world he needed right here, the breasts that trembled at his touch were mountains, her delectable skin plains and plains of sienna earth...valleys and rivers and **oceans** between her thighs. And Ragetti wished to know them so well.

"Darlin'," Calypso whispered hoarsely, wriggling in the most sinful bliss above him.

Ragetti locked eyes once more with the beautiful divinity. His tongue lay still against Calypso's lips. When the goddess made another disappointed keen, it dissolved into a sigh as his sly fingers lovingly curved into her. Ragetti's left hand abandoned her calf to spread her beauty more to his greedy eye. He knew his thoughts had been true. Every inch of Calypso was indeed perfect, by virtue alone.

She began to massage his back as smooth feet slid up and down from his avid attentions; Ragetti pressed a kiss into her and reveled in the breathy 'yes' that followed. She watched him as his head raised, always to whatever words she could manage, and his body followed suit. Fabrizio certainly looked ready to take charge and assert himself, as she studied him by the hypnotically waning torches. Shadows swathed half his sinewy frame when he continued up, suckling her along his path.

"Fabrizio," Calyso chuckled as her lover's oral affections targeted ticklish spots. "Oooh, don't…"

Ragetti nipped under her breast and ran his tongue across the contour of Calypso's collarbone, hardening at her arching up.

Calypso was a goddess of charms and the infinite ways in which to apply them. She smiled as a siren when Ragetti traversed her curves with delightful enthusiasm. He took in her goading responses. Calypso's squeals as she wound her hips to his, _oh_, how time truly did slip away when seduced between those beautiful thighs…Ragetti knew that she was completely uninterested in being divine. Though she was half- in origin, it was not Calypso's essence.

There was not a thing godlike about the trails of scratches scoring Ragetti's shoulders, or his desire to leave her breathless beneath him. He was a madman driven to the heavens his goddess was banished from, with every push and her kisses against the shell of his ear. Fabrizio possessed Calypso for that time of abandon, and she loved its blasphemy. They were in the throes of something mortal, instinctive—so primal that tendrils of heat were dancing within her very core as Fabrizio pleasured them both.

He lit her aflame from inside, and soon it was going to take the two of them over. Calypso lounged astride him, Fabrizio's shoulders in her hands. He kept all but her hips from moving to his delicious thrusts. She loved the thrill that tightening grip provided. The stolen kisses as Fabrizio pulled her closer made Calypso quicken the pace of her lovemaking. He let his head thud against the obsidian floor, and a needing groan escaped his growling lips.

"Love…oh, Calypso—!"

She was undone by his cries, and sat fully upright upon Fabrizio's swaying hips as she approached her own euphoria. Ragetti caressed the goddess' body, giving into the first wave of elation that surged through him and into her. When his fingers ventured to her sweetest spot and Fabrizio claimed her peaked breast for his own, Calypso could take no more. She sank down into his waiting embrace, careening from rapture as her pirate delivered to her again and again, and again.

* * *

Not such a long while after this, sleep came upon them like thieves in the night. Calypso's hair blanketed Fabrizio's chest, their legs ensnared as they slept on the warm coral _kline_ near the pool. Her dreams were peaceful, of Nereidian days as a young nymph and a blonde pirate whose voice carried a faint hint of the Mediterranean. Ragetti found his own to be far less comforting.

In his imagining, he saw himself standing at the mouth of the cave alone. The water's dulled lapping against the sea-worn rocks created a monotonous calm. That quiet was vanquished with the sudden glint of _talaria_. And just as in the first meeting, Hermes towered before Ragetti in a royal authority. He greeted Calypso's brother warily. The deity had a look about Ragetti in silence. Then he held a slight, mischievous smile.

"You made your journey worth it?"

Hermes already had full awareness of what he and Calypso'd done. A brilliant flush spread down Ragetti's neck, and he quickly nodded. The god grinned at his bashfulness, but gladness was abruptly dampened when remembering his intent. Ragetti gazed off into the twilight clouds while waiting for Hermes to speak.

"Gods never come into humans' dreams unless something forebodin's goin' to happen."

Hermes raised his eyebrows, glancing sidelong at the pirate's words. No, Fabrizio Ragetti was certainly _not_ a fool.

"What sort of foreboding have you envisioned?"

"The sort that involves me and Calypso being kept from each other. Because of old-runnin' grudges. And my shit luck."

Ragetti ran his fingers along a teal seashell, looking at its miniscule shimmer. He imagined her sunning on a bed of shells by an ancient beach. A nymph. An enchantress of nature. It would be Ragetti's divine fortune: to fall for the one being he was forbidden to be near.

Hermes touched Ragetti's shoulder reassuringly. Ragetti could not find it within him to look into those knowing eyes, so much like hers. He breathed in relief when the god walked away toward the edge. But his stare did not lift.

"It will not be dooming if the right decisions come to pass. Your role as a bearer of the Nine will not change. What have are your feelings toward this."

Ragetti closed his eye.

"Yes. I…"

"You are anxious. For her fate. For your future together. You care for her."

Ragetti's mind drifted to the first time he had ever encountered the sea, and fallen in love with her. Then to when the pair had met again in Cuba at her eerie swamp den. In those years, she kept a cool distance and had only seen Ragetti as a Piece ward. Over time, Calypso's gradual acquiescence and eventual expectance of his company became clear.

This was the result of that intuition, a lingering pull between the goddess and him. But he understood where it would lead. He was man enough to confess that he was not Odysseus, captive against his will. No, Ragetti was a willing prisoner, a devoted servant in his love for Calypso.

Hermes was many things, but not a liar. Ragetti _would_ have to leave this limbo soon, and her with him.

"Is that what you came to tell me?"

"That was the preamble to my message. You will be the one to bind her for the freeing ritual. That filthy captain Barbossa shall ask you. It is my advice to heed him despite his repugnance, do your job as a Bearer and then release her. My sister can handle matters on her own once the bonds are broken."

Ragetti stared at Hermes in astonishment. "You can both see what's comin'."

"We're Oceanid children. Foresight is one unfortunate trait that passes on," the god explained with a bitter sigh.

"Wha—"

"Do not ask me what is in store for you, Ragetti. Love and its circumstances are the most likely to change, and that's moment to moment. I can say that you are not alone in your worries."

Hermes's _talaria_ flapped rapidly as he made to leave with his usual swiftness. But before he did so, the messenger left something unexpected.

"My sister loves you. The faith she places in you, is the most she has ever conferred apart from me and…your predecessor. Remember that."

His winged sandals took him away, but Hermes' words certainly stayed in Ragetti's mind long after that.

* * *

Calypso came to as Fabrizio began to clasp her tightly. His hold was protective, strong. He nuzzled into her shoulder as she shifted back.

"Sirens always teasin' unwittin' men." Fabrizio's lips met the base of Calypso's neck with lazy tenderness.

She glanced over her shoulder at his dozy hazel eye, earning a smile and a kiss. His fingers slid within Calypso's tresses as her lips parted to let him taste.

"Mmmm…"

Ragetti had a point, and knew exactly how to come forth with it. But in the present she was gyrating dangerously close to his rising girth, and was that still wetness he felt on Calypso's outer thighs?

"Calypso, I have to tell you—"

"Tell me what?" The goddess' beautiful eyes traveled down from his wavering gaze, to the straining hardness imprisoned by their hips. He slowly sucked in breath as she wrapped graceful fingers around it.

"Oh, you know how hard it is to think now, love!" Ragetti savored her again, twitching with every teasing pump.

She whined and shuddered with anticipation as he stroked her entrance. "Fabrizio, pleas—"

"MMM!" the goddess squealed as Ragetti filled her, his hands holding her in place. He drank in the mewling pleas, the way she so gave herself to sensation.

"On your stomach," the pirate grunted out as she wound in small circles. To his delight, Calypso did so. Her fingers interlocked with Fabrizio's as he again sated her emptiness. They fit as two parts of a sensual whole.

"I can never get enough of you," she whimpered softly into his neck. An approving moan reverberated throughout Calypso's skin as Fabrizio thrust harder, with depth and passion.

Calypso shimmied up to better receive him.

"Goddess. _My_ goddess." He lost himself in every squeal, every flutter of her around him.

"I could spend forever indulgin' you like this, makin' you mine." _But I can't._

_And I know that, my dear. _Ragetti reared up in surprise from Calypso's telepathic words. She moved serpentinely on his stiffened manhood. He squeezed her beautiful rear with a growl, willing the goddess to feel his desire.

_I know how much you love to please. And ya do so well, Fabrizio. _

There was an otherworldly magic to the rhythm of Calypso's heavenly hips. Ragetti watched as she took and he received, took and received. The ebb and flow was dizzying. How could she be doing this so effortlessly?

_I also know that this is the last lovemakin' we will share in some time. So while we are able…_

Her lover clutched her by the elbows, taking the hint with zeal.

"When the sun rises, that's when we'll worry about Barbossa and the _Pearl_. For now, ohhhh…"

Calypso was picking up her pace. "Satisfy me, Fabrizio. Don't ya dare stop another second."

And Ragetti did not cease to give Calypso what she sought after. From the wee hours preceding twilight till dawn on the horizon, her request was ardently fulfilled. The pirate took his last taste of the sea goddess on the cave's edge, to a chorus of rushing waters and climactic cries.

A knowing silence began to settle over the grotto. He let Calypso slide out of his arms with reluctance, and she planted a warm kiss to his shoulder. The goddess gained her bearings to stand, all beautiful curves and svelte limbs that made every movement elegant. Fabrizio got up as well. Calypso watched him rise, and giggled when he made to grab her.

"I no longer trust ya to be so close when there is nothin' to cover us."

Ragetti put his palm over his chest, acting affronted. "I was only goin' to remove the bit of seaweed in your hair."

The goddess cooed her apology and sauntered within his reach. Fabrizio's hands were feather-light, heartbreakingly gentle. They roamed into her messy mane before extracting a piece of long, dark green algae.

"Thank you, darlin'," she whispered.

Fabrizio kept his fingers there, cradling Calypso's head as their gazes held. He gave a wan smirk and pecked her on the lips.

"Let's get dressed, love."

She did not miss the sorrow in that loving eye. It upset her more than words could convey.

Calypso took his hand as they traipsed around the grotto together, articles of clothing draped haphazardly on the ornate _klines_. She looked longingly at her chiton. Ragetti smiled sadly.

"It's too pretty for a dingy ship like the _Pearl_." He omitted how such sheerness would give his idiot crew ideas.

The goddess let him go, walking past the bubbling pool to a dark terrace above the coral couch. There she bent down as if searching for something. Ragetti folded his arms and sat, curious about what she had been hiding. Calypso emerged from behind the large bedstead, half-clad in her bodiced gown and flowing skirts. He knew he would forever weaken at the sight.

"Fabrizio."

She came to a graceful halt before Ragetti and spun around, her corset undone.

"Could ya…?" Calypso gestured at the strings exasperatedly.

"Yes, love," he answered with surety.

She deposited in Ragetti's lap a bundle of shabby sailor's clothes and his knapsack. So that was where those had gone.

He set to work, rather skilled in his lacing. She drew a headband from the cleavage of her dress and lifted the dreads from her neck. With two swift loops, Calypso's hair was taut in a lovely updo with gold and red brocade. Ragetti tried not to ogle the skin that it left to his eye. After a few over-eager fumbles Calypso's corset was fitted, and she gave his cheek a caress for the effort.

Remorse arrested Ragetti when he began to don his threadbare attire. The cotton felt itchy and unnatural after days of going without. He slid into his breeches and shoes, pulling on the remainder of the clothes. As Ragetti adjusted coat and shirt, he looked up at his love again. And there was no playfulness or joy to be seen there on her troubled face. He watched as tears spilled out like diamonds.

Ragetti rose to pull Calypso into him. He caressed down the goddess' back in tender circles. Her sobs stabbed him through. How could he be strong for her, feeling the same anguish as she? When it was eating Ragetti whole?

Calypso grew quiet as their foreheads touched, Fabrizio's forefinger gingerly lifting her chin.

"Calypso, if you're in despair about what's to be of us…trust in me. I'll do the right thing by you," he allayed.

Her eyes locked with Ragetti's, a mystical sight in their ochre beauty. Sunlight accentuated the flowing spirals. Calypso reached to encircle him in longing.

"They will make ya bind me like an animal. It is barbaric, but please stay ya temper for this. Help me leave this form."

Ragetti concurred with a silent nod, beginning to sway her in his arms.

"I'll make sure of it, love."

The goddess gave Fabrizio a soothing cuddle as she looked about the cave one final time.

It would be farce to pretend she would not miss this—the memories and freedom of her island. And he forever reminded Calypso of how perceptive he could be when speaking again.

Fabrizio's lips peppered bare shoulder with chaste suckle. "We can always return to this place."

"Let that be my promise to you. After I am released for good," Calypso declared. Ragetti was endearingly expressive for such a shy spirit. She indulged herself one more breathless kiss, before his hoping words.

"At world's end?"

He could perceive an energy rushing beneath Calypso's hands on him, the same used to summon the pair here. Suddenly the grotto floor vanished under their feet. Ragetti felt a twinge of terror at the feeling, and the wraithlike sheen of crimson eyes as the goddess took them away.

_At world's end, my love. _And he was no longer afraid.


End file.
